A National Mask Mandate Isn’t Necessary to Save Lives

The Daily Signal ^ | August 26, 2020 | Kevin Pham

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

“Every single American should be wearing a mask when they’re outside for the next three months at a minimum,” said former Vice President Joe Biden at a recent press briefing.

“Outside” encompasses a lot, including places where a mask would have exactly zero effect. Normally, this kind of rhetoric is a merely simplified admonition to wear masks generally, but in this press briefing, Biden also endorsed a nationwide mask-wearing mandate, adding this gloomy justification: “The estimates by the experts are it will save over 40,000 lives in the next three months.”

More on that estimate in a moment. But first: Would such a mandate even be a good idea?

In short, no. The primary purpose of the broad masking guidelines is to reduce the transmission of the virus among asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic persons who do not know they are infected but are already contagious.

We ask everybody to wear a mask where close contact with others is unavoidable because there is virtually no way to tell if a person needs it. Having everyone wear a mask is the only way to cover every potential spreader.

But we do not ask everyone to wear a mask all the time. A person who is contagious, even symptomatically so, would pose zero risk to anyone else when standing alone in an empty field, or more realistically, in the parking lot between a car and the grocery store, or simply on the sidewalk.

The recommendation to wear a mask comes from clinical experience and common sense. Surgeons wear masks during procedures not to protect the surgeon but to prevent the surgeon’s respirations from contaminating the field. For the same reason, patients with COVID-19 or similar diseases are masked when being transported through a hospital.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Coronavirus PING!

[Secret Agent Man]

shooting libtard anarchsit protestors on sight would save far more lives than the g-d idiotic mask mandates

which the libtards do not require for the terrorist protestors, go figure, whom they love dearly and shelter like sweet little lambs

[Manuel OKelley]

Thank you

I’ve stayed away lately because of all the Covid hysteria

[Trump Girl Kit Cat]

There have actually only a couple of hysterical people the rest of us were arguing with them!!! I have to agree with you though those few were absolutely HYSTERICAL over CV19 it was hard to take!,

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Most of them also mask up, presumably to conceal their identities.

[Secret Agent Man]

many do for that reason, yes

certainly not because they want to obey the mask mandate

[Truthoverpower]

The stupid insidious mask crap needs to end ! AND END NOW !!

[chopperk]

Simple solution to the pandemic,,,,Make HCQ and Azithromycin OTC drugs so anyone who develops a cough and/or fever can go the nearest drug store and self medicate with the drugs along with Zinc Sulfate with correct dosage within 48 hours of symptoms and pandemic over.,,,,,instead of waiting a few days to get tested and 5 days for the results,,,,if over 60 years of age,,,,you’re dead.

[palmer]

if over 60 years of age,,,,you’re dead

That's not true at all. I know people in their 80's with the virus and no symptoms. Another in her 80's had a lot of shortness of breath, but took the HCQ, Zinc, some kind of antibiotic (I don't know which one). other drugs, and recovered completely. That was in another country.

[MayflowerMadam]

If Covid is SO contagious and SO deadly …
Why hasn’t the government specified the exact medically approved masks which MUST be worn?
Why are masks from mesh, cheesecloth, or sewing material OK with the government?
Why hasn’t the government dictated that every mask must be worn only once before disposing of it?
Why do you need to have an 8-inch Q-tip stuck way up your nose for Covid testing?
Why can’t you test by breathing on a microscope slide if you could contaminate and infect others within 6 feet?
Why must you “social distance” beyond the length of an 8-inch Q-tip?
Why must you wear a mask if it is farther away than where a Q-tip tickles your brain?
If the invasive Q-tip test is the accurate test, then masks and social distancing do nothing to protect people.

[Jim Noble]

What is needed first is the objective of any new policy.

Suppression means the goal is no new infections in a given population or geographic area over a defined period of time.

Mitigation means prevention of infection in at-risk people and toleration of widespread infection in the general population.

Without a national decision on this issue, attempts at city/county/state policies are foolish.

[Jim Noble]

Why hasn’t the government

Because they are incompetent, have vested interests more important than the public health, and are obsessed with getting rid of Trump.

[2aProtectsTheRest]

"Why hasn’t the government specified the exact medically approved masks which MUST be worn? Why are masks from mesh, cheesecloth, or sewing material OK with the government?"

Because the government is (generally) terrible at its job. That said, the CDC does have guidelines for masks which includes some suggestions about them. But you're right that they should have clearer guidance on which types of masks are better (e.g. properly fitting N95/KN95) and which are worse (e.g. bandanas).

"Why hasn’t the government dictated that every mask must be worn only once before disposing of it?"

Some masks are washable or otherwise reusable. However, better guidance on this would be great. But again, we've known for generations that government is generally just not very good at doing its job.

"Why do you need to have an 8-inch Q-tip stuck way up your nose for Covid testing?"

Because that's how that one particular test works. If you don't like it, design a different test yourself. Yale did just that and now that test using a saliva sample has been granted authorization by the FDA.

"Why can’t you test by breathing on a microscope slide if you could contaminate and infect others within 6 feet?"

Because that would give you massively contaminated samples, lots of false negatives, and it's not how either the nasal swab testing or the Yale saliva testing were designed to work. You don't get to just make up your own testing protocols that haven't been tested, especially when the protocols you're making up are guaranteed to be inaccurate.

"Why must you “social distance” beyond the length of an 8-inch Q-tip? Why must you wear a mask if it is farther away than where a Q-tip tickles your brain?"

Because respiratory droplets are the primary infection transmission vector and they typically travel less than 6 feet. Masks reduce both the volume and the range of respiratory droplets which are normally released while you breathe, talk, shout, cough, sneeze, sing, or otherwise exhale in any sort of forced manner. Here's what masks do (source study here):

"If the invasive Q-tip test is the accurate test, then masks and social distancing do nothing to protect people."

The accuracy of a particular testing protocol has ZERO to do with the mode of infection transmission. That's like saying because there's a urine test for measles, you have to get peed on to catch measles. That's absurd. If you want to catch measles, skip your vaccination for it and just stand within about 10 feet of anyone who has measles. You'll likely become infected within minutes.

You think your questions are some clever way of exposing a grand conspiracy, but they aren't clever and the only thing they're exposing is a lack of basic understanding. This stuff isn't that complicated.

[who knows what evil?]

Trump needs to cancel the national ‘emergency’.

[2aProtectsTheRest]

That would be incredibly short sighted. Right now, the Democrats and the media are hyping things up to make COVID-19 sound like the end of the world. The more they do so, the more of a hero President Trump is when he announces that his Operation Warp Speed vaccine program has resulted in a safe and effective vaccine approved for general use and on its way to pharmacies and doctors offices across the country at no charge to any Americans.

He’ll be the hero who ended COVID-19 and who stands ready to rebuild the economy and the election will be between that and a guy who can barely remember his own name. So no, President Trump should absolutely not do anything to stand in the way of the media and the Democrats continuing to hype this up.

[MayflowerMadam]

Yeah, yeah. Please toggle your browser back home to DU, DNC, or wherever your heart lies. At least some sleepers, not wanting to be obvious, signed up a year or two ago, ready to pounce and disrupt weeks before the election.

Your excuses sound technically bafflegab-ish. Saying the government is “terrible at its job” doesn’t change the fact that mesh masks are just FINE with them, and they did NOT provide strict guidelines for masks to make people safe. LOGICALLY, the masks and test procedures make no sense if this truly were a super deadly virus. They lied to us — often. Their one one and only goal was/is to bamboozle the citizens to control them — a test for the future. (Sadly, their test was successful.)

[2aProtectsTheRest]

There is no grand conspiracy around the mask guidelines; just the typical incompetence we should all expect by now from the government.

COVID-19 spreads via respiratory droplets. There’s plenty of research done on that front. A well made, properly worn mask helps reduce the volume and range of respiratory droplets. I’ve linked to research on that. President Trump has also stated specifically that it’s a good idea to wear masks when the situation is appropriate. That situation is when you’re in a public place that’s indoors.

Yes, SARS-CoV-2 is real. Yes, it actually does spread. Yes, some people (not everyone, but enough to pay attention to it) are dying. No, it’s not the end of the world. And yes, President Trump’s vaccine initiative will put an end to all the shutdowns, masks, social distancing etc.

I support President Trump’s strategy here. I think he’s done a great job, I think he’s saving a lot of American lives, and I think he’s doing wonders to help his re-election bid. Do you support the president?

[MayflowerMadam]

“Do you support the president?”

I would have voted for him in a heartbeat in 1990 when I read, “The Art Of The Deal”. So, yes; I support President Trump.